A title dispute between the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and two Vineyard residents, both sides believing they own the same piece of property in Chilmark, moved into the Massachusetts Land Court this month after the foundation sued the two year-round residents who had begun to clear the land and build on it.
A well-known Cambridge businessman and prominent seasonal resident of Edgartown is a key backer of a bill quietly making its way through the Massachusetts legislature that has the potential to affect dramatically the ownership rights on barrier beaches around Great Ponds, the Gazette has learned.
The ocean-facing beach around the treacherous breach at Norton Point Beach on the Chappaquiddick side was closed to swimmers yesterday following a fatality over the weekend.
An overhaul of the shuttered state lobster hatchery in Oak Bluffs has been approved by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the commonwealth will now invest a significant sum of money to rehabilitate the facility for use by the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Cape and Islands Rep. Timothy Madden announced yesterday.
Mr. Madden said the state DMF has agreed to invest at least $250,000 in the project in phases. Work began this week to replace the plumbing in the old hatchery that sits on the eastern side of the Lagoon Pond in Oak Bluffs.
It’s the quiet season now but it was hardly quiet at Bramhall & Dunn on Main street Vineyard Haven yesterday, where the phone was ringing off the hook. And there was Emily Bramhall herself answering, slightly breathless from so many calls, this time from a reporter.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has solidly backed the town of West Tisbury in its ongoing effort to keep Rogers Path, an ancient way that leads to a Civil War-era cemetery in the North Tisbury section of town, open for public use.
A large brigade of Island firefighters, wearing their dress blues and standing straight and true, flanked the steps of the Old Whaling Church last Saturday afternoon, a fine May day flecked with sunshine and breezes. Joe Cressy would have called it a sailor’s day and he would have been right. Joe was right about everything — on this point there was general agreement amid laughter and tears, poetry and music at his memorial service on Saturday.
A pair who robbed a well-known elderly Oak Bluffs man of his life savings last month have been arrested, although Oak Bluffs police said they have not recovered all the money. Police said $85,000 was stolen from the man, whose name is being withheld, but only about $37,000 has been recovered.
The robbery occurred on March 19, when the man reported to police that his safe had been stolen from his home while he was off-Island visiting family for two days. It contained his life savings of about $85,000, police said.
A divided gathering of West Tisbury voters agreed on Tuesday night to take the first step toward allowing the sale of beer and wine in restaurants in this historically dry town in the rural agricultural heart of the Vineyard. And while the measure still needs another year of approvals, including at the state legislature and in the ballot box by voters, what was seen as a sleeper article on the annual town meeting warrant woke up with a start near the end of a long meeting that had its share of bumps and peppery debates on matters both fiscal and philosophical.
A longstanding effort by the town of Edgartown to protect five ancient byways suffered a setback last week when a superior court judge sent a district of critical planning concern (DCPC) designation back to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission for another review.
The five paths are Middle Line Road, Ben Tom’s Road, Pennywise Path, Watcha Path and Tar Kiln Road. Their use as cart paths and byways dates to Colonial times, and in 2007 the commission approved a town-sponsored initiative to designate them as special ways under the Island Road District DCPC.
